During the first quarter of 2017, the Platform for Better Oral Health in Europe worked with its new Secretariat to refine its 3-year strategy. During its meeting in February 2017, it has agreed to focus its activities on the following goals:

1. Inclusion of oral health indicators in future EU publications, such as Health at a Glance, or the European Social Survey. Through better indicators on oral health, European policy-makers will be able to take informed decisions to improve delivery of oral health in their countries, and eventually improve oral and public health outcomes, and reduce public health costs.
2. Establish a thematic library for best practices in oral health. The Platform will work to develop a structured approach to collecting examples of best practice, and will publicise them on the Platform’s website. These examples will demonstrate the link between oral health and broader public health issues and themes. The objective is for this repository to be a living project, where best practices would be evaluated on an ongoing basis, and become a reference for Member States looking for best practices in oral health.

In addition to this, in March, Dr. Nigel Carter, Chair of the Platform, and Dr. George Tsakos, Chair-Elect of the Platform, met with a delegation from John Ryan’s office (Director for Public Health in DG SANTE). The objective of this meeting was to discuss the Platform’s ongoing work on oral health indicators and best practices, and gather information on the Platform’s involvement in upcoming Joint Actions.